A Game of Love
by AccomodatorOmega
Summary: ONESHOT! H/D When a lonely Valentine's day threatens the two they start a game. But how will it end? Altered, spelling errors fixed and some addage of words


**A Game of Love**

It was a sunny day in the second week of February, but more exactly the 13th, the day before Valentine's, and Harry Potter couldn't have felt any duller. All around him was blooming love; Ron and Hermione, Terry and Cho, Fred and George, Ginny an Dean (with a side of Seamus . . . ), and Harry wasn't even sure about his sexuality. Harry was in no mood for classes, but was glad that Friday started with History of Magic and Professor Binns.

"Oh, gods! Could you two separate long enough to say 'good morning, Harry,' or 'how ya' doing?' Fancy anyone?" Harry snapped at his two love-obsessed friends with impatients.

"Well, someone needs to get shagged." Hermione crudely pointed out to Harry while never breaking eye contact with Ron, receiving a scandalous gasp from both boys.

Harry gave up and decided to simply leave his friends to their own entertainment, then made up his mind to daydream through History as he would never use this information again. Halfway through the class though, Harry was brought back to reality by the ever strong feeling that a hole was forming in the side of his head. He turned to find the source only to see the most unexpected person staring back at him: Draco Malfoy. The utter strangeness of the situation must have shown in his expression because Malfoy quickly turned away, and Harry could have sworn that he saw a blush form on the other boy's nicely formed cheek-bones.

Harry, now too confused to return to daydreaming, chose to wallow in the self-pity that stemed from his non-existent love-life.

He managed to make it to lunch without a reoccurrence of the incident in Binns' class. With no one to talk to, seeing as everyone had someone else to snog with, he commenced to poke his potatoes, when, suddenly, an idea occurred to him: _I wonder what __Slytherins__ talk about. _Feeling mischievous, he stood up and walked straight toward Malfoy without a second thought.

* * *

Draco was disgusted by the love-thick air that the month of February brought that only amplified as Valentine's drew closer, and as it was the closest day you could get to the damnable day without out actually being the day, he was feeling even more nauseas than ever. He was left single, while Blaise and Pansy amused themselves not-so-quietly or in the least inconspicuous, and Crabbe and Goyle were engaged in a continuous row over Millicent Bulstrode. Not in the least wanting to go to classes, he found solace in the thought of Friday's first subject: History of Magic with the infamously boring professor Binns.

Draco had begun to doze off when his eyes caught sight of none other than Harry Potter. It must have been the light reflecting in Potter's eyes, but Draco couldn't find it in him to turn away. Suddenly, he was met with a direct stare from the aforementioned boy and his sparkling eyes, whose face was soon distorted with confusion. Draco found his senses soon enough to turn away before blushing, or so he hoped.

Through his following classes, he avoided looking at Potter, but could feel an occasional inquisitive look from the raven-haired boy's general direction. He couldn't rationalize why he had been staring at Potter which made him very nervous yet excited with a foreboding sense of anticipation.

When lunch rolled around he was no more resolved and with no one to talk to except the back of a head, he turned to mumbling to himself about oblivious love sick puppies and self absorbed pricks. He was called back to reality by a familiar voice.

"So I see the infamous Ice Prince is unaffected by the grasp of February inflicted puppy-love." Harry exclaimed in a mocking tone hoping to stir a response but only receiving a confounded look from Malfoy.

"Whuh?" Malfoy so elegantly responded.

"I see somebody's coherent today." Harry retorted, just before plopping down next to the dumbstruck Malfoy.

"So sorry, that I don't have as much of a sunny disposition as your ungodly Bubbliness." Malfoy snapped in order to cover his lack of comprehension of the situation, "No one interesting at Gryffindor anymore?"

"Could say the same to you, oh Master of Negative Energy." Harry quipped.

"What's your game Potter? You can't simply want to chat to a lone conniving Slytherin such as myself?" Draco questioned slyly feeling that this could actually turn into something interesting to distract him from being single and ignored by his friends.

"Well, if you want to play a game, I'll go first with a question: Why were you staring at me in History?" Harry clearly had the upper hand as this question made the unsuspecting and oddly playful, Slytherin sputter.

Draco thought for a moment not wanting to say the awkward truth which he thought wasn't much of an answer and proposed instead, "Only if you make a deal."

"What kind." Harry was now thoroughly interested, perhaps the day wouldn't be so lonely or boring after all.

"Will you or won't you?" Draco pressed denying to be anything but vague until the Gryffindor agreed.

"Fine, I suppose I have nothing else to do. Wait, why are you so twitchy? You look slightly deranged and you're being civil . . . OH MY GOD!" Harry jumped up screaming the last words, almost loud enough to call everyone's attention to them, but just short of doing so as they were quite busy with the snogging and all; he proceeded to hit Malfoy upside the head and screamed, "YOUR NOT MALFOY!" He then promptly fled the lunch room unbeknownst to everyone other than Malfoy.

And the game began.

The day passed uneventfully as the Slytherins and Gryffindors didn't have any classes together. Avoiding homework, Harry stared into the common room fireplace, but was unable to shut out the noises of incessant snogging. Furious with his surroundings Harry snatched his invisibility cloak and decided to take a cold, cold shower in the Prefects Bathroom, not expecting the scene he was about to walk in on.

Harry recited the password '_Shag month extraordinaire'_ and shuffled in, dropping his things and raising his eyes to meet the sight of a wet Malfoy, wearing only a towel around his waist while drying his hair with another.

Draco, confused by Potter's reaction at lunch, had found himself taking a bath to relax. But not wanting to turn into a prune, he left the bath after only half of an hour and began to dry his hair when he heard the door open and close. He looked up into the stunningly bright green eyes of Harry Potter.

This was the second time today he had meet such breath taking eyes, and not knowing what else to do he averted his eyes and became thoroughly interested in a spot on the floor.

Harry, also feeling the awkwardness of the situation said the first thing to pop into his head, "So how 'bout that deal?"

Draco, wanting to keep the illusion of normalcy answered as calmly as possible though he had completely forgotten about his proposition because he hadn't actually had a plan formed then and he still hadn't thought of one and he couldn't look foolish so he said the first thing that came to mind. " Well . . . how about we make a scene . . . and start dating to make everyone snap back to reality and feel incredibly uncomfortable for having done nothing but snog for the past two weeks?" His apparent thinking off his feet of a plan sounded rather slip-of-the-tongue-ish and he had immediately wished he hadn't said anything of the sort.

"What kind of deal is that?" Harry asked in honest confusion as it did seem like a plan that could succeed in doing so and succeed in making everyone feel incredible uncomfortable.

"Well . . . uh." Draco began twiddling his thumbs.

"Okay, sure, whatever." Harry nonchalantly agreed but thought to himself, _What__ is with him? Must be an adverse reac__tion to the month of February or perhaps it's__ the impending doom of a lonely Valentine's __Day__. Oh well._

With no other sign or word of response from Malfoy, other than his jaw dropping, Harry just walked past him and began to strip for a shower.

"Well, I suppose you should cordially invite me to the Valentine's Ball tomorrow at breakfast and profess your undying love for moi, I mean that's the only possible way to even attempt to break apart every love bird in the school. How you do it is your move." Harry ended his challenge by giving Malfoy a smirk and by being completely naked. While he was smirking at him he noticed the state of Malfoy's face. _Draco just increased six shades of red. Wait, when __did he become__ Draco, stupid mind. Wait, did __i__ just strip in front of Draco?_ He shrugged of the last part and feeling newly relaxed, somehow, submerged himself in the bath rather than a cold shower he previously thought he had needed.

Draco was flabbergasted and slightly embarrassed by the other boy's casual nudity. His anger flared with the feeling of having been insulted at being ordered around as it had been his plan to create a scene in the first place. He decided to get back at Potter, if only there was some way to also draw attention to them . . .

Harry was excited for the next day's events, namely how Draco would ask him to the Valentine's Ball and a subsequent request to date. But he soon answered the calls of sleep only plagued by fleeting dreams of Draco's possible move.

NEXT DAY

Draco arrived early to breakfast to see how Potter would react to his invitation. Sitting at the table he was meet not only with the sight of snogging lovers but to that of heart-shapped pancakes everywhere covered with whipped cream and an endless amount of strawberries. Banners, streamers, lights and things of the sort covered nearly every inch of the Great Hall in preparation of the nights Valentine's Ball. When he saw the doors begin to open, he instinctual knew that it was Potter and turned himself ready for a show.

Harry was excitedly interested in how the coy Slytherin was going to create a ruckus big enough to split all the lovers that were so conveniently surgically attached by the lips. As he strutted toward the doors leading to the Great Hall, he suddenly felt a suspicious wave come upon him. When he opened the doors his ears were bombarded with a loud bang. Upon fully entering the hall he was showered with confetti along with the sound of something singing '_Oh when you're __feelin__' down, just l__ook up and around, find yourself__ a date and accompany the Master of Negative Energy as his submissive pet or wickedly sexy date__'_ Instead of ending with that it continued the ever so romantic song and even followed him.

_What in the hell is Draco thinking._Harry thought absurdly, only slightly embarrassed by the singing balloon as it wasn't the first time something like this had happened to him on Valentine's.

Amazingly enough, this actually elicited the attention of every occupant of the Great Hall and _'Why is there a heart shaped balloon following Harry Potter around.', 'Did it say something about going as Draco's pet?', and 'I love confetti.'_ could be heard echoing from table to table.

Harry, thinking it was all part of their game slow ran to Draco like a Matrix pansy and cried in an overly dramatic tone, "Oh Draco, I so desperately desire to accompany you, my liege to the Valentine's Ball as your wickedly sexy date and afterwards have a thorough snog with you." He proceeded to flop down into Draco's lap, throw his arms around his neck, and nuzzle his cheek.

Draco, shocked but encouraged, shrugged off an, "Okay." and immediately took action, he buried his hands in Harry's unruly yet, irrefutably soft, hair and firmly pressed his lips to Harry's slightly parted ones, leading to a very enjoyable first kiss (well at least for Draco). To top it off the balloon completely burst with excitement covering every inch of them with the remaining confetti.

At that moment when their eyes flared open they realized that this was a game of love they could not escape.

_El Fin_


End file.
